Hummingbird Hums its Way Into Your Google Searches

ATTENTION EVERYONE: GOOGLE RULES THE INTERNET! 

Did I really have to say it? No. 

We all know Google runs SEO, and how we live our lives on the internet. They staff over 20,000 people and make billions of dollars in revenue each quarter. They own Motorola, YouTube, and spent almost a billion dollars alone on an app called Waze (Google it). Their interns average $6,000 a month, and their Googleplex looks more like a college campus than your average company headquarters. 

Well over 2/3rds of all online search queries are done on Google. This makes them by far one of the most influential companies as well. Whether we like it or not. 

This became even more so when Google somewhat quietly introduced their new search algorithm last month, entitled Hummingbird. 

If Google was a newspaper, articles about the gold iPhone 5, the NSA leaks and even the new Grand Theft Auto would be making the headlines. But for many companies, Google’s Hummingbird is making them as unnoticeable as classified ads. 

Typically when someone Google’s something, it is along the lines of “When did Larry Bird retire from basketball?” rather than “Larry Bird retire year.” Why? Because most people Google how they think and talk. And Google is trying to make the answers to your questions as personable and as human-like as possible. 

Now, Google will not eliminate the “when,” “did,” and “from’s” in your search. They will blast through the billions of pages on the internet to answer your question in about .38 seconds. Google already tries to know what you’re thinking (just type in “What is” … Miley Cyrus would be proud). But they don’t want to just finish your sentence based on keywords. They want to help understand the concepts and meanings of your searches as fast and as precise as well… a hummingbird. 

Gone are the days where you can cram keywords and videos on you page and think that that is considered content. For the better, or for the worse, Google is making companies work for it. To provide deep, meaningful content. To give something of value rather than volume. 

What can small business do to survive? 

Think CONVERSATION. Think QUALITY. And think NATURAL LANGUAGE. 

If you were looking for your product or service, what would you type in to Google? “Women’s shoes” or “What are the comfiest running shoes for women?” “Law Firm” or “Personal injury attorney in Buffalo?” or the perfect example HubSpot used: 

“… ‘How do I fix the chain on my Trek mountain bike?’ Google now understands that you’re neither shopping for a bike nor a bike chain, but you're looking to fix said chain. They are now prioritizing the context of the query as much as the content…” 

Have you ever tried to impress Google? Didn’t think so. And neither does anyone else. Use simple words in your content. Hop on hot topics. Are you an environmentally conscious company? Give your opinion on the next BP oil spill on your blog. Own a restaurant and trying to sell your sauces online? Write a post on your favorite BBQ or pie recipe. These types of posts will attract people, increase your page views and in the long run, create a new potential customer. 

COME BACK LATER FOR PART 2!

Luigi Serafini

Levi's - Go Forth

I love Levi's marketing. Thought I'd just let you all know.

Jay-Z's Wild Wild West

Remember those things called compact discs? Yea, you know- Those flimsy round things that came a few years after the cassette tape, and thousands of years after our parents chiseled sound into “vinyl records” with their cavemen friends? OK, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but when was the last time you bought a physical CD? How about an entire album on iTunes? 

We all know that technology is rapidly changing. Not only has the platform of which we listen to music changed, but the way we listen to music has changed. Long gone are the days where people sit down and enjoy an album song by song. Album sales have plummeted and the power of the single is rising with every “Call Me Maybe.” 

“We don’t have any rules. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. That’s why the Internet is like the Wild West. We need to write the new rules for what’s going on right now,” said rapper and business mogul, Shawn Carter (AKA Jay-Z). 

Jay-Z is the new sheriff in town and he is taking over the Wild West of the Internet, and creating a new way to sell his album. 

In June, during game five of the NBA Finals, Jay-Z not-so-casually dropped the news to millions of viewers that his new album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” would be released on the 4th of July to one million Samsung Galaxy customers via an app. Jay-Z is almost single-handedly turning fans of an artist into customers of a product, while still trying to keep the integrity of the album. 

He is here to put a death to auto-tune and a resurrection to the “album,” where realistically he will make millions of dollars somewhere in between. The app is packaged nicely with pictures and lyrics- like a CD or album- but also intertwines videos and a way for Samsung to track your age and location (because not doing that is sooo 2008). 

“The whole thing I wanted to do was have that fireplace or that radio moment where everyone’s just sitting in front of the thing listening to an album,” Carter goes on. “I want everyone to hear the album at one time.” 

While I think most customers who are targeted to buy this album will have too short of an attention span to do so (especially with cellphone in hand), it is a great marketing scheme and an innovative way to start and push music where it may be heading.